Phiya Kushi's Blog: Musings on life and macrobiotics

Don’t Spoil Your Appetite!

One of the greatest timeless pieces of macrobiotic advice ever given are these simple words that mothers (and fathers) everywhere have uttered to their children, “Don’t spoil your appetite!”

Don’t spoil your appetite, not just for the wonderful meal that is being prepared for you, but for everything that life has yet to offer you. Be aware of your appetite, your hunger and your desires that drive your spirit and passion for all that you seek to devour or immerse yourself into.

At times, feed your appetite, explore and satiate it, satisfy the hunger but never to the extent that you can never regain it again. Stimulate, indulge and enjoy fully your heart’s most passionate desires until you’ve had your fill! Live your life to it’s fullest and if you’ve reached your limits, then fast and allow yourself to go hungry again. Resurrect your appetite to its fullest. Guard it well, for it is the source of your joy and passion for life.

Let yourself hunger for life’s most delicious treats. Hunger for the greatest adventures. Yearn for the most passionate of romances. Dream the greatest dreams. Fall in love with life, with people, and with all that this world has to offer and all that you have yet to discover. And when it is yours to devour and experience then chew it well, savor it slowly, enjoy every morsel and, most of all, guard your appetite well, that you may enjoy your life tomorrow and the next day and every day after that.

These days many people are full. They over indulge themselves with everything. They eat too much, they work too much, they have too much and they spend too much. They even eat when they are not hungry at all, ignoring their appetites entirely. As a result, they may become wealthy, obese and heavily laden with worldly possessions. They are so full of excess that they no longer have the room in their bodies, minds, hearts and lives to hunger and yearn for anything anymore.

Babies and young children are always hungry for everything. They constantly hunger for food and new experiences. Their appetites for life are huge. They are always playing day in and day out – sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, sometimes active and sometimes sleeping deeply. They never eat more than they can and they refuse when they can’t take anymore. They only do what they want and never do what they don’t want. They play all day and their life is nothing but joy.

Stop for moment and ask yourself, “Are you hungry?” or “Are you full?” If you are too full, literally and figuratively, then you no longer have the capacity to enjoy life anymore. If this is you then I suggest that you fast for a day or two or more. Eat less, eat simple. Make yourself hungry again. Make yourself uncomfortable and make yourself poor. Strive to be “comfortably poor” instead of “comfortably rich”. Nurture your appetite. Let it grow again so that you can live your life to its fullest again and again. Guard your appetite, but also feed your appetite. But never feed it too much that you spoil and ruin it forever.

A wise mother once said to her child, “Don’t spoil your appetite!”. Follow this advice and you will always have youthful joy in your life.

Thank you very much for sharing these wise and joyful thoughts that have brought a big smile to my being. …I like the expression “youthful joy” and how you give tools to reconnect to it when we have lost it; I like as well how you relate the appetite in general to “the source of joy and passion for life”… I agree with all of it 100%, this is the way it functions.

To learn to play with these parameters will allow us to keep the flame alive, more conscious of the direction we want to take and how to get there, taking into account that this applies to all fields of our life, as you have mentioned.

I really enjoy translating this article now. Deep philosophical insights and eloquent language – both form and substance are perfect. Certainly my appetite for your materials increases with every new post.